BrianJeffrey

I agree. I switched from Mitchell to Protractor in November 2015. I love the time clock, parts integration and the accounting all together. We never tracked the parts returns until Protractor, 2nd week I had it a supplier transposed a number and could have cost me $50 on the return, we caught it right away. That would add up over the years. I never tried the Mitchell integrator with quick books, everyone I asked told me it wasn't worth the money and didn't do as much as they wanted. Reporting in protractor is cool, I need more education on excel but will get there. I miss copy and paste and being able to build 3 or 4 estimates that way. I will not go back. Mitchell Enterprise is exactly the same, different people on the support end though FYI. We started the visual inspection integration with Autoserve1 September will be the first month, last week seemed promising from the feedback we received from the few we did a trial on.

I have a local guy that has been wanting me to buy him out. I've seen all the numbers and at the end of the year it looks like somebody made a living, not a great living and you end up with a worn out Truck. I passed. Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Thanks for all the great info! It seems to me that the general population has a misconception that everything should be high quality, cheap and immediately attainable. I did call my customer back, make sure the vehicle was still operating as should and share his concern about the part price. I stated to him again why I buy on quality and not price and asked him what the warranty process was for the parts he found were. He didn't know, it was a short conversion.

I recently did a drivabilty repair on a 1999 Bonneville, a week after all was done the customer called to share his concern about the price of the MAF we replaced. I told him there we many out there and the only ones we have positive results with were the AC Delco new ones. He stated he could buy the same thing for less of course. The sensor cost me over $250 and my margin is 39%. Am I out of line charging this? And how do you handle price objections similar to this?

Thanks for all your info. It is greatly appreciated. I spoke with my Tech that left he said he needed to at least give it try for that kind of money. Just a money thing he said. I told him if he didn't fit he was welcome back here. mspecperformance, Do you have a formula or benchmark you use to calculate in the benefits, ins and comebacks. I have raised my rate FYI. We did a rate survey and found that we were not the lowest but were the average. I do like the hourly rate and then the billed hour pay. I am working on something similar. I assume at the 27.6 hours is break-even for the Tech?

120 toward tools/ ins month, pd holidays, simple IRA company match & week pd vacation after 1 year, company uniforms, pd training. Any unpaid time off needed. He enjoys working here with our team. Has a kid starting college this fall also...

24 hourly the rate was at 73. I know its low.

Thanks for the info! I have a hard time figuring out what that premium price should be and stay within "the going rate". My concern is pricing myself out of the market. Our town is about 45,000 people with lots of competition.

I have a great that a new local import dealer is stealing away from me. He has been with me for almost 5 months. Great guy experienced, import certified, ASE Master. The new local dealer needs a certified tech like him, some sort of dealer requirements. I'm sure not the first to have this happen. Has anyone upped the labor rate to keep a tech like this and been successful? My thought is to raise the rate considerably. 10-12 per hour and also raise my warranty. Anyone been in a similar situation? Thanks in advance

Interested in knowing how others are fixing the problems we are all faced with!